Quotable Country – 12/19/10 Edition

We’re skipping Quotable Country next week in honor of the baby Jesus, so this is the final installment of 2010. Another wild, wacky year on the books. Thanks for sticking with us.

Click the bullet after each quote to visit the original source.

Son, that’s pretty good, but I don’t think you could get away with saying ‘chew’ on country radio. ●– – Johnny Paycheck to Vince Gill on “It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long.”

I’m sort of pissed at her. I’ve been, what, 20 years, I’ve been in the music business, and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a standing ovation at the CMAs. After all the hard work I’ve done. After all the time and effort. And then she walks out and sings one song and everybody stands up. ●– – Tim McGraw expresses mock frustration at Nashville’s embrace of Gwyneth Paltrow.

I think the concept of what an album is in the midst of being reconfigured. … I’ve got plenty of albums in my collection that are nine songs long, eight songs long. When it was vinyl, it was [sometimes] four on one side, five on the other. It’s been every combination of numbers at some point. With the CD, of course, we could put more songs on, so it got bigger and bigger and bigger. But I think quality of songs should be the first and foremost thing, as opposed to quantity. So I just wanted to look at maybe doing [albums] on a more regular basis. ●– – If Keith Urban could come up with eight quality songs but not 10, this doesn’t say much for the seven bonus tracks on the Target edition of his album. And how’s releasing the same amount of music through annoying retailer exclusives going to allow him to put out albums on a more regular basis?

I have a couple of things going on. I have an album that I’m working on called “Killer Combinations,” and it’s people you might not expect me to sing with and some that you would, like Dolly Parton and Lionel (Richie) — I’ll do something with them. Then a couple of rappers have talked to me about doing something. ●– – Rapping Kenny Rogers! You heard it here first.

My kids think the only thing I’ve done is ‘Cars,’ the ‘Hannah Montana’ movie, and now the duet with Justin Bieber. I’ve done three things in ten years! ●– – Would that it were true, Mr. LeVox.

I shot a music video for [“Is That So Wrong”] . . . and [Country Music Television] kind of banned it. ●– – Julianne Hough falls into the ‘if they’re not playing it, it must be banned’ logic trap.

AllSaints Acton Shirt
Three women in my life have tried to take this shirt from me, so this is a his or hers gift. This is my favorite shirt. It’s in my bag right now. ●– – From Kristian Bush’s holiday gift guide. When you’re a guy and you’ve got multiple women (and no men) trying to steal your clothing for their own, know what they call that? Cause for concern.

I think it’s (the country artists’) responsibility to make records that stand up with the Waylon Jennings and the Johnny Cashes and the people who really built this format. […] I think it’s disrespectful to make a record that’s anything other than great because of what [Jennings and Cash] did. ●– – Eric Church obviously hasn’t heard “Chicken in Black.”

I would think it was not right to wish bad on anyone up until about 2007. It was at that time that I actually felt liked I wished it was legal and not against the ten commandments to get even with a few music business people who lied, cheated, stole, killed and did such inhumane things to elderly people and others, just to get their assets for record deals. Since then, even I have become resentful and harbor vengeance. ●– – Semi-frightening fan comment on a Jo Dee Messina piece at The Boot.

You could fry a cockroach in batter and basically I would eat it. ●– – I think Gwyneth Paltrow might be going a little overboard with this country thing.

I can get angry at some people taking an unfair share of the pie — like radio broadcasters. For 75 years, radio has never had to pay the artist. Frank Sinatra never got a dime from a radio station and a lot of them made a lot of money playing his music. That’s got to change. ●– – UMG Nashville chairman Luke Lewis.

It was launched as all singer-songwriters. There were no rookies. It was more of a press-driven sort of a label. Most of the artists had their own fan base. The music is for discerning music junkies, collectors rather than passive listeners. The goal was to try and make enough money to keep the doors open. We made records for less money. We spent less money. We weren’t reliant on hits. I like to think we were pretty selective. […] The challenge confronting Lost Highway now is that the print media that had a lot to do with the success for artists is not as potent as it used to be. We’ve lost a lot of big, influential music magazines these last few years. ●– – Luke Lewis on the Lost Highway imprint.

There was also a hammered drunk homeless man named Memphis that walked up in the middle of the shoot. He looked at me and said, ‘If y’all let me dance, I’ll make you more money.’ I think he thought we were playing for tips. ●– – Randy Montana on shooting the “1,000 Faces” video in downtown Nashville.

As far as legislation, I think capital punishment is a fair thing for scalping. ●– – With Garth working so hard to keep the cost of his Vegas tickets down to a reasonable $250 each, you can’t blame him for taking such a hard line against people trying to overcharge. (Though, in fairness, profiting off the resale of tickets to a charity event like one of Garth’s Nashville concerts IS pretty underhanded.)

When those thoughts come in, and surely they do, I think you have to discipline them out. I think that destroys the song. At that moment when we’re there for those hours or weeks or months or years — how long it takes to write the song — I think you have to be purists and idealists. It’s, ‘What does this mean to me? Why do I care? Why is the lady checking out at Harris Teeter with three kids, why is she going to care? Why does the guy who’s got 36 hours off at Dollywood eating funnel cakes with his family — why is he going to care?’ That’s really all that we can concern ourselves with. The rest of it, I think, kind of destroys the art. ●– – Tom Douglas (“The House That Built Me”) on writing for the song, not the hit.

Country music isn’t supposed to be that happy. I can’t stand too much happy country music. When I write, I try to write traditional country, which is about loss and goodbye, not hello. ●– – Randy Rogers explains his obsession with goodbye songs.

There’s the Rolls Royces, George Jones, and then as far as the new stuff goes, I like Jason Al Dean. I throw Jason Al Dean’s name out there just because they’ve said his name after the song enough times where I can remember what it was. I’m not a follower of country, per se, I just kind of throw it on sometimes. ●– – Well, at least Staind’s Aaron Lewis, who has lately ‘gone country,’ seems to have a real affection for the music…

I’m very much in love, and it’s going to come out on the show in March… I ain’t telling you (who he is)… (I’ve known him for) 25 years… I had a crush on him when he was 18… He’s a rock star. ●– – Well, Ms. Wynonna, if you’re not gonna say, I’ll just assume I know: Rick Astley.

There was more pop-sounding stuff on the radio in the early ’80s than there is now. ●– – Alan Jackson.

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Comments

The artist-never-making-money-off-radio argument always baffles me. How many additional records/cassettes/CDs/MP3s have ended up purchsaed because someone heard a song on the radio and liked it? I’ve always seen radio as free advertising for products (in this case, music), and I don’t see why radio should have to pay for the right to air advertisements for different record labels.